A top Florida official says the controversial state-run immigration detention facility in the Everglades will likely be empty in a matter of days, even as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration and the federal government fight a judge's order to shutter the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by late October. That's according to an email exchange shared with The Associated Press. In a message sent to South Florida Rabbi Mario Rojzman on Aug. 22 related to providing chaplaincy services at the facility, Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie said “we are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days," implying there would soon be no need for the services. Rojzman, and an executive assistant for the rabbi who sent an original email to Guthrie, confirmed to the AP on Wednesday Guthrie's emailed response to both of them and the veracity of the messages. Questioned about the email exchange by a reporter at an event in Orlando, DeSantis framed the declining population as the result of an uptick in deportations by the Department of Homeland Security. “Ultimately it’s DHS's decision where they want to process and stage detainees and it’s their decision about when they want to bring them out,” DeSantis said. He acknowledged the ongoing litigation may be "an influence” on the pace of deportations. While DeSantis sought to minimize the state's role in removals, attorneys for the federal government have said in legal filings that “any decision" to detain unauthorized immigrants at the center “would be Florida’s decision, not DHS’s,” adding that the facility operates using “state funds on state lands under state emergency authority.” News that the last detainee at “Alligator Alcatraz” could leave the facility within days came less than a week after a federal judge in Miami ordered the detention center to wind down operations, with the last detainee needing to be out within 60 days. The state of Florida appealed the decision, and the federal government asked U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams to put her order on hold pending the appeal, saying that the Everglades facility’s thousands of beds were badly needed since other detention facilities in Florida were overcrowded. Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, whose lawsuit led to the judge’s ruling, opposed the request. They disputed that the Everglades facility was needed, especially as Florida plans to open a second immigration detention facility in north Florida that DeSantis has dubbed “Deportation Depot.” Williams had not ruled on the stay request as of Wednesday.